Activate the great hand of God

Psalm 112:5
Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice.

What does it mean to be generous and freely? God hit me with this one yesterday right between the eyes. I was on my way to a friend's church and was reflecting on the day. I had just talked to my company and settled on pay that is considerably lower than I had envisioned. I was mentally calculating all our expenses and how each paycheck would cover our monthly outflow. I was also reflecting on the last six months without a project which is essentially unemployment. I soon forgot all of that as I entered the church and began to worship God.

As I was walking out after the service, I encountered a woman who I struck up a conversation with. With a few words, I asked her a simple question which completely melted her down. "What's going on in your life right now?" The next few minutes followed with streams of tears and a sad story of lack for the last 10 years. Basically, she's been in the belly of the whale all these years. I was speechless for a moment and I was getting ready to say "God loves you" when she said in anger, "you don't have to tell me, I know what I have to do, it's all my fault and I need to repent."

I said to her that was between her and God and what I wanted to say was that God loved her. More tears and angry statements at God followed and then I suddenly felt a wave of conviction and inadequacy. My season of lack is defined as no vacations, only going out maybe once a week, turning the air up to 84, etc. Here is a person who just lost her job and home, has had the cycle repeat over and over. I didn't feel like a generous person. She pulls out her last $20 bill and told me she gave $5 in the offering. Fear came into my mind because I thought for a second she was going to give it to me! I had a dollar in my pocket, what help would that be? Finally her ride told her she must go. I gave her my Compassion business card and her eyes lit up when she read "Compassion", she said, "I like that, I need compassion!"


I was driving home and I began to weep and melt down. All I kept thinking was how inadequate I am to help sometimes. Burdened by my issues, I was paralyzed to help. I began to think about a friend of mine I have in Seattle who has a similar situation and I left him a voice mail. I felt like I needed to repent for not being able to help him.

Bottom line: When it comes being generous, the enemy lies to us and makes us believe that generosity is defined in thousands and millions of dollars. I believe the devil is happy when we get the feeling of being generous but then deceives us by mixing our generosity with pride and soon we find ourselves wanting to be generous in a way we really can't afford to be.

Generosity needs to begin right where we are. It could be as simple as opening the door for an elder person. Saying to someone, "God loves you." It doesn't have to be a grandiose operation involving millions of dollars. It's all about the small initiatives we take on our own to activate the great hand of God to move and provision His generosity.